Floyd County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Floyd County lies within the Blue Ridge and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Floyd County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Floyd County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Floyd County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Floyd County — the short answer
Floyd County, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 244K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 244K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Floyd County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Floyd County's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Floyd County
Across a year, Floyd County accumulates about 2,849 growing degree days above 50°F, about 885 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 8 of Virginia’s 133 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Floyd County
Across Floyd County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Glenelg, Cowee, and Peaks are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.2–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Floyd County
The USDA soil survey maps 65% of Floyd County as well drained — but another 35% drains differently: 28% somewhat excessively drained, 4% moderately well drained.
Glenelg is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Cowee (14%) and Peaks (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Floyd County
Each reading below is measured for Floyd County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Floyd County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Floyd County runs about pH 5.2–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredFloyd County runs about 203 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFloyd County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Floyd County is in
Floyd County sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Floyd County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Floyd County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 203-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Floyd County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Floyd County
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Floyd County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly4 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Floyd County
USGS estimates 8,137 lb of Glyphosate on Floyd County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (5,453 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (5,011 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Floyd County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Floyd County — 132 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Floyd County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Floyd County
Closest first, across Floyd County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wills Ridge Supply IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Bobby Boyd Trucking Incorporated (former)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- HOLLINGSWORTH & VOSEToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- HOLLINGSWORTH & VOSEBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- BIO REGIONAL ENERGY ASSOCIATES LIMITEDToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- CRENSHAW LIGHTINGBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Quesenberry GradingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- West End MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- AEP FLOYD SERVICE BUILDINGBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- WESTSIDE SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 28D 2Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- DONNKENNY APPAREL - FABRIC CUTTERS PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Floyd County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Floyd County.
Total Sites
132
across Floyd County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Floyd County
Severity Distribution
across Floyd County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Floyd County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 28 sites across Floyd County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Floyd County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Floyd County average
Your land is one point inside Floyd County
Everything above resolves to Floyd County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 244K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Floyd County Average
Floyd County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Floyd County
- ●One soil character for all of Floyd County
- ●Frost dates read at Floyd County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Floyd County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Floyd County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Floyd County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Floyd County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Floyd County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Floyd County average
How we know this about Floyd County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Floyd County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Floyd County
When does frost risk typically end in Floyd County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Floyd County typically lands around Apr 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 27.
How long is the growing season in Floyd County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Floyd County sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Floyd County?
The federal record around Floyd County is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Floyd County's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Floyd County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Virginia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Floyd County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Floyd County's own scale — its own ~203-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 132 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Floyd County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Floyd County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Floyd CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 132 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Floyd County's boundary and the 243,790 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Floyd County sitting wholly inside the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Floyd County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Floyd County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Floyd County — the ~203 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Floyd County's 243,790 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 132 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Floyd Countyread your own land →